Translated material
An idealist in an ideal position
Israel's ninth president must repeat the success of the first
Yesterday, a solemn ceremony took place to swear in the ninth president in Israeli history. On June 13, veteran of Middle Eastern politics, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, one of the leaders of the ruling centrist Kadima party, 83-year-old Shimon Peres (pictured) , was elected as the new “symbol of the unity of the nation.”In the Jewish state, the post of president does not give real power, it is rather representative. But Shimon Peres has long sought to take this position. Back in 2000, he ran for president, losing then to Moshe Katsav, who later became notorious for his sexual adventures .
Now Shimon Peres will certainly be able to restore authority to the institution of the presidency in Israel. His image as a peacemaker began to work for him even before he officially took office. Pope Benedict XVI sent congratulations on the occasion of the inauguration, which is a sensation for a country in which the state religion is Judaism.
“You can study the history of our state from his biography,” these were the words that began yesterday on Israeli television reports about Peres’ inauguration ceremony. He was born in August 1923 on the territory of modern Belarus 25 years before the declaration of Israeli independence, where he came with his parents at the age of ten. Today, you can take tours to his office in Tel Aviv, where Vremya Novostei correspondents have interviewed him more than once. Here are photographs of Peres with people who have long gone down in history: with the first Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, the legendary Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan, with the former Prime Minister, ally and at the same time rival Yitzhak Rabin, and even with the leader of the Palestinian Authority Yasser Arafat.
The ninth president of Israel has held almost all positions: he headed the government twice, was the minister of foreign affairs, defense, finance, information, and regional development. The new five-year post will most likely be Perez's last, and not only because of his age. Only one, the fifth president of Israel - the extraordinary creative personality, politician and poet Yitzhak Navon (held this position in 1978-1983) - after such a high position returned to active political activity and even took the post of Minister of Education.
If we compare Shimon Peres with his predecessors in this post, then not with Yitzhak Navon, but with the first president Chaim Weizmann. He devoted his entire adult life to the creation of the Jewish state and died at the age of 78, having already served as president for four years. Weizmann managed to unite the nation in the very first, difficult years of Israel's existence. “Miracles sometimes happen, but you have to work hard for them,” said Chaim Weizmann about the declaration of independence. Shimon Peres devoted his entire political life to ensuring that the miracle became a reality. In 1994, he received the Nobel Peace Prize for the signing of peace accords between Israelis and Palestinians a year earlier in the Norwegian capital Oslo. And it was Shimon Peres who coined the term “new Middle East,” denoting the idea of peaceful coexistence of the Jewish and Arab peoples, Jewish and Arab states, and joint economic development of the region.
It must be admitted, however, that Peres's popularity abroad, where he is unconditionally considered the patriarch of the peace process in the Middle East, is much higher than in Israel. Part of the population believes that Peres "did nothing for the Israelis." "He was always second, hid behind the backs of others, the last presidential election was the only one he won in his entire career. His own ideas are so unrealistic that none of them will ever be implemented. Perez is an idealist, his head in the clouds all his life own illusions,” one Israeli politician, who asked not to be named, told Vremya Novostey.
"Long service to the President of the State of Israel!" - said the head of the Knesset, Dalia Itzik, at yesterday's ceremony, which was not much different from previous similar ceremonies. "Long service!" - the Knesset members repeated in unison three times. Previous President Moshe Katsav and Peres' wife Sonia were not present at the inauguration. And if Katsav, who greatly undermined the image of the president in Israel, was strongly recommended to skip the ceremony, then the person closest to Peres, Sonia Peres, could not come for health reasons.
Perez has always been distinguished by increased attention to his family. He once told a VN correspondent that from any, even the shortest, trip abroad, he tries to bring a small souvenir to his wife, who bore him three children (they already have six great-grandchildren). Once, during a visit to Moscow in 1999, Perez even asked the author of these lines to help him choose a gift. Then, despite the protests of Perez’s security, he himself went to jewelry stores on Tverskaya and chose a gift for his wife. Sonya Perez received earrings from a series of jewelry from Swarovski from Moscow.